


loft beds are (not) for lovers

by hi_raeth



Series: reblog (mini fics + prompt fills) [11]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, plotless with a hint of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-13 11:18:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18030713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hi_raeth/pseuds/hi_raeth
Summary: Ben’s always wanted a loft bed.Rey has a loft bed.(That’s it, that’s the ficlet.)UPDATE: now featuring a bed-breaking second chapter.





	1. Chapter 1

The day she finally brings Ben back to her studio apartment, the first words out of his mouth are:

“You have a loft bed.”

It’s the first coherent sentence uttered between them since they rushed out of the restaurant like desperate, giddy teenagers thirty minutes ago, and it’s accompanied by an amused little quirk of Ben’s lips as he turns to her. Rey flushes under his observation, feeling unbearably childish and small as they stand in the doorway of her humble abode that’s worlds away from his proper, fancy grown-up apartment.

“It's a good way to maximize your space,”she says defensively. She'd taken the tiny fourth floor apartment because no one else wanted the long climb - the elevator hasn't worked in _years_ \- and it was slightly cheaper, but as a nice bonus at least she has high ceilings and rooftop access for a little garden. It's not much, especially compared to Ben's place, but at least it's  _hers._

Ben blinks at her tone and offers her a rare boyish grin. “I always wanted a loft bed _,_ ”he admits.

“Oh.” Rey’s not quite sure if she’s reacting to his unexpected confession or his disarming smile, but she allows a slow grin to bloom on her face as she tries to picture little Ben clambering up his tiny stairs to his tiny bed. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Ben shrugs as he walks further into the apartment, leaving Rey to close and lock the door behind them. “But my parents were always worried I’d fall off during a nightmare. And by the time those stopped, I’d already hit puberty and outgrown the one I wanted.”

He doesn’t want pity, Rey knows; doesn’t  _need_ it, or an awkward  _sorry,_ or some clumsy attempt to dismiss his past by pointing out that  _hey, at least things are better now._ So she bites back the urge to react to his words the way she thinks a good girlfriend should and glances over her shoulder at her tiny, flimsy bed instead, and bites her lip in silent consideration for a second.

“I’d invite you up, but I’m pretty sure it’d collapse.”

She doesn’t even mean it  _that_ way, is only thinking of Ben’s weight and hers and the way the bed creaks even when it’s just her climbing her way up, but–

It’s too late. Ben turns back to raise a single brow at her – he  _knows_ she hates it when he rubs that particular ability in her face – and gives her a little smirk as he pretends to size up the bed.

“Oh yeah,” he tells her with a serious nod and a little furrow between his brows, even as his lips twitch with the effort to fight off a smile. “There’s no way this thing would survive us.”

 _God,_  he’s such a cocky little bastard.

Rey absolutely adores him for it.

“There’s always the couch,” she points out as Ben advances upon her with an all-too-familiar look in his eyes.

She shrieks when Ben sweeps her off her feet with no warning, can’t help but giggle when he throws them both onto the couch with such force that they nearly bounce off the squishy old thing.

“Thank god for the couch,” he says as he rolls onto his back and lets Rey straddle him.

“Thank god for the couch,” she agrees, and leans down to kiss all thoughts of couches and beds and nightmares away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only way to get through writer’s block is to push on and write anyway, right? I vaguely remember hearing that once upon a time.
> 
> Anyway, here’s hoping this helps me get back to normal. As always, thank you for reading and I hope this sparked even the tiniest bit of joy in your Reylo hearts. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment!
> 
> [Tumblr](https://eleanor-writes-stuff.tumblr.com/) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hiraeth_writes)


	2. Chapter 2

“Almost done?”

Rey spares Ben a glance over her shoulder before she returns to her contemplation of the loft bed. He’s running out of boxes to bring down to the truck, a sign of a job well done on both their parts, but that means she can no longer put this off.

“Just about,” she tells him, tilting her head as if a new angle might provide her with the elusive magical solution she’s been waiting for. “I’m not sure what to do with this. There’s no way it’s going out the door in one piece, and it’s not like anyone wants it anyway.”

She could just leave it here, but then it’d be Maz’s problem, and the sweet old lady doesn’t deserve that.

“I guess we could take it apart,” Ben suggests, as if it’s as simple as twisting free a few screws and stacking up nice, even parts.

“See, the thing is– Ben!” Rey squeals as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her to his chest, giving a half-hearted struggle to escape his iron hold. “I’m all sticky,” she points out, painfully aware of the beads of sweat trailing down her back and now soaking into his shirt.

He shrugs, leaning down to rest his chin on her shoulder. “I don’t mind.”

“And I’ve got dust and dirt everywhere–”

Ben silences her protest with a nip to her earlobe. “Dirty girl,” he growls teasingly, pressing a warm kiss to her neck before he turns her around and picks her up in one fell swoop. After a year of practice, Rey likes to think they’ve got this move down pat, working in sync as his hands curve under the swell of her bum while she wraps her arms and legs around him.

“We need to leave soon,” she reminds him, not surprised in the slightest by the breathy quality of her voice. The way he holds her tight, the way he looks up at her like she’s everything – she’ll never get tired of this, never fully get used to it. “And I’ve still got boxes in the kitchen–”

“I think we’ve earned a break, don’t you?” Ben says, feet carrying him forward out of sheer muscle memory before he realizes his destination no longer exists. The sofa bed they usually make use of had been the first thing to go, moved into his home office three days after he first pointed out that she barely ever spends time here anymore and wasn’t her lease up soon anyway?

Everything else had followed shortly after, moved either to his – well, _their_ – apartment or the secondhand shop Rey had scavenged so much of her furniture from in the first place. Now all that remains is the loft bed, standing tall and proud in the gutted out shell of her former home.

Ben, determined as ever, barely falters as he pivots with her in his arms and makes for the kitchen. Rey supposes a break won’t hurt, and maybe after this she’ll finally figure out what to do with the bed–

“Wait, wait!” She unwraps her legs from around Ben’s hips, trusting him to let her down gently even as the tiniest hint of a frown forms on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Rey assures him, tugging him back towards the bed with a grin. “It’s just, since no one wants this anyway, I was thinking… it wouldn’t be a _terrible_ waste if something were to happen to the bed.” She leans against the ladder and looks up at him with a smirk, waits until the processing look on Ben’s face transforms into something else entirely before she turns around and starts climbing up. Halfway through she twists around to look at Ben, and laughs when she finds him stepping out of his jeans as he pulls his shirt off.

“What’s the rush?”

“Figured I’d make things more convenient,” Ben shrugs before he reaches out and lightly smacks her backside. “Now up you go, sweetheart. No time to waste, right?”

Rey shakes her head at his enthusiasm and hurries up the last three rungs, filling the apartment with her laughter when Ben practically flings himself over the edge only to freeze as the bed creaks in protest.

“You really weren’t kidding about this thing collapsing, were you?”

“I mean, I’m impressed it didn’t fall to pieces when you got on the ladder,” Rey tells him as she kicks off her shorts. “When I built it I wasn’t even sure it’d hold _me_ , let alone a hundred-and-eighty-pound gym rat–”

Ben lunges forward to hover over her. “Hey, I’m _not_ a gym– wait, what did you just say?”

He looks a little too distracted for it to be a gag, but Rey plays along anyway. “A hundred and eighty, babe. It’s nothing to be ashamed of–”

“No, no, the part about you build–”

And that’s when the ancient bed slats choose to give out under them with a terrible, disastrous _snap_.

“Fucking _fuck_!” Ben yells as Rey lets out a startled scream, the two of them holding tight to each other as the rest of the precarious structure caves in and sends them tumbling to the ground, mattress and all. “Jesus _Christ_ , Rey,” he says a whole minute later, the two of them still breathing hard, staring up at the ceiling they were close enough to graze just moments ago. “ _You_ made this thing?”

Rey turns to him with a frown. “Well, obviously. What did you think?”

Ben sits upright, taking her with him. “I thought it was made by an actual manufacturer!” he says, sounding just the slightest bit freaked out as he runs a hand through his hair and roughly tugs at the ends. “With a healthy fear of lawsuits and decent workmanship!”

His eyes are _huge_ and impossibly round right now, and it’s funny, really, that’s she’s known him for more than a year yet this is the first time she’s ever seen Ben freaking out. “ _Hey_ ,” Rey huffs, biting back a smile as she makes a big show of crossing her arms and pinning him down with a glare that has no real heat in it. “Are you saying my workmanship is shoddy?”

“I’m saying I think I have splinters in my ass, sweetheart,” he tells her in the driest tone possible, almost _challenging_ her to disagree with him and defend the quality of her work.

It was never her finest piece to begin with, but like hell is she admitting that to Ben.

“Oh, poor baby,” she croons instead, shuffling closer on her knees while Ben watches her with wary eyes. “Do you want me to kiss it better?”

His lips twitch as Rey settles between his legs and loops her arms around his neck. Once, twice, and then– “If this is your way of telling me you’re into butt stuff…” Ben begins with that shit-eating grin she can never help but kiss off his face.

A year later and it still works like a charm.

Rey shakes her head and draws away, pulls Ben down onto the mattress with her. “Some other time, babe. For now, let’s do it on a loft bed while we still can.”

“Um, Rey, I think that ship sailed about five minutes ago–”

She sighs and hooks her legs around his waist, uses her feet to slide his boxers down. “There are pieces of the bed under the mattress, which means we’re still on the bed. Which means _it counts_ , Ben.”

A beat, and then–

He grins again. “Have I ever told you you’re the smartest person I know?”

“It’s always nice to hear it again,” Rey shrugs as she pushes his boxers past his knees and nudges his hips with her own to draw his attention back to the matter at hand. “Now will you please get on with it?”

Ben jolts at the unexpected skin-to-skin contact. “Oh. _Oh_. Right away, ma’am, whatever you want–”

Rey shakes her head. “You’re lucky I love you too much to get rid of you,” she mutters, and swallows whatever smartass reply he might have with a kiss.

.  
.  
.

For their honeymoon, Rey books a cabin with a beautiful view, gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows, and a huge master bedroom with a mezzanine floor for the bed, accessible only via a built-in ladder.

In other words, it’s as close to a loft bed as they’re ever going to get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I finally wrote a ficlet-length ficlet... only to write a second chapter that's nearly three times the length of the original piece. Clearly I was born in the wrong era, because imagine if we were still doing that whole "paid by the word" thing. Alas, here I am, a penniless millennial. 
> 
> Anyway... As always, thank you for reading and I hope you liked this! Please don't hesitate to leave a comment; they really do make my day. <3
> 
> [Tumblr](https://eleanor-writes-stuff.tumblr.com/) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hiraeth_writes)


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